Friday, 6 March 2015

Review: Call Me Debbie

Call Me
Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth DivaDeborah
VoigtWith
Natasha Stoynoff (271 pp.)New York:
Harper Collins (2015)ISBN:
978-0-06-211827-1Confession
time: when it comes to reading singers’ biographies, I’m a bit of a junkie.
Like many passionate opera lovers, I am interested in the artist, but also
curious about the person behind the artistry. A sub-genre is the autobiography
or memoir, never mind a lot of these tomes listing a co-author or ghostwriter – one
needs to read these volumes with a generous helping of salt. During my
undergraduate, my first memoir was an old, dusty university library copy of
Australian prima donna Nellie Melba’s Melodies and Memories (1926).
Ghostwritten by her secretary, the book comes across as formal, stately,
ladylike and not terribly interesting. A much more rewarding read was the
wickedly funny Men, Women and Tenors (1937) by fellow Kiwi-Aussie diva
Frances Alda. After plowing though this thick, 300-page volume, I was hooked.Perhaps
it’s a sign of the changing times, the generally staid classical singers’
memoirs have evolved into something more daring, with more revelations and
exposés and less of the nitty-gritty, boring bits that read like a tedious
chronicle of past performances. To be sure, many are still not quite tell-all
tales, or the narrative is so reverential that it sounds like something written
by a publicist. The cynic in me couldn’t help a smirk at the title of a well-known
Italian soprano’s memoir called “…More Than A Diva.” Industry insiders will
easily recognize the ones that have been sanitized for public consumption, or
the presence of glaring omissions regarding private lives, such as the recent
book by a great African-American diva. Some artists use the memoir to settle
old scores, such as the one by a famous Russian soprano. Perhaps it’s
understandable why a singer gets evasive when it comes to personal details -
after all a memoir is a sort of “performance” and few artists would willingly
expose the underside of a life for scrutiny. For the few more forthcoming, the
result can be a riveting read - Christa Ludwig, Barbara Hendricks, and Galina
Vishnevskaya come to mind.Now we have
a new book that sets the tell-all bar very high indeed: CallMe
Debbie by American soprano Deborah Voigt. One of the most celebrated
sopranos of our time, Voigt in her prime was a superb Wagner and Strauss
singer. To those lucky enough to have experienced her on the opera and recital
stages, it likely left an indelible impression. (I use past tense because her
instrument has changed with the passage of time, and she seems to have given up
her core Wagner and Strauss repertoire in favour of musicals and one-woman
shows) Before this book, we knew nothing about her private struggles as an
artist and a woman. Born to a devout Southern Baptist, but sadly dysfunctional,
family in Illinois, Voigt’s talent was recognized early. She recounts an
epiphany at age 14 when she heard God telling her, “You’re here to sing.” To
her religious parents, singing belonged only in church for the glory of God. This
was just the first of many inner conflicts in her young life that likely
contributed to her multiple addictions – to food, alcohol, and men.In the
book, Voigt chronicles in detail the ups and downs of her relationships with
her parents, her struggles with an increasingly serious weight problem, and her
tendency to fall in love with the wrong guy. To deal with all these issues in
her life while juggling a demanding international career, Voigt developed a
dependency on alcohol that became increasingly dire. While she managed to keep
her alcoholism from interfering with her work, she wasn’t so lucky with the
weight issue. The matter came to a head in 2004 when she was released from a Covent
Garden Ariadneauf Naxos for
being too heavy for “The Little Black Dress.” With a signed contract, she had
every right to sing. Royal Opera chose to release her with full pay, and Voigt
used the fee to pay for gastric bypass surgery. But a medical intervention is
not a cure, and her old pattern of behaviour persisted. The narrative on how
she passed out for thirty-six hours and woke up with unexplained bruises all
over her body is chilling. The book graphically details her addiction issues
and the slow climb out of the abyss through recovery, attending AA meetings and
various rehabs. Reading her travails might satisfy the voyeur in some of us,
but it also makes for decidedly uncomfortable reading. One gets a true
appreciation of the fact that great singers like Voigt may have the voice of an
angel, but many of them have feet of clay.If there is
a downside to Call Me Debbie, it has to do with having focused so much
on the singer’s personal issues that there’s little room left in the book on
her art – what made her famous in the first place. Other than some discussions
of her signature roles of Brunnhilde, Sieglinde and Ariadne, heroines that are
somehow tied in with the singer’s relationship and self esteem issues, there’s
precious little about anything else musical. We learn little about Voigt the
musician, about her approaches and insights into the music she sings. Yes there
are the occasional tidbits on colleagues, all treated in a surprisingly genteel
fashion – for example she adores Domingo and makes allowances for the great
Luciano. Comments on Jose Cura’s oversized ego is about as catty as Voigt gets.
The two evil mezzos with whom Voigt crossed swords remain nameless. At the end
of the day, the book really isn’t about music, but addiction and recovery. Its
tell-all style, written in a relaxed, archetypal American lingo (no profanities
spared!) will endear it to the general reader, even if the person has little
interest in opera. It makes the absence of an index and performance history
almost irrelevant. It’s an absorbing and interesting read for anyone curious
about Deborah Voigt, the woman and the artist.- Joseph So

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La Scena Musicale is a monthly Canadian classical, opera, jazz and world music magazine published in English and French by La Scène musicale/The Music Scene, a non-profit charity dedicated to the promotion of music and the arts. La Scena Musicale's award-winning website SCENA.org has been a world leader of classical music and arts news since 1996. The LSM Blog is the place for commentary and news on music and the arts in Canada and around the world. Publisher: Wah Keung Chan; ISSN 1925-9700